How to hold the leadrope.... danger free !

OK, I have seen lots of people hold the lead rope in a loop.
see her left hand?
That can be a dangerous way to hold it. Imagine you were holding her horse and the lead rope was like that. Your horse suddenly got scared and turned away quickly and started walking or trotting away. What is the lead rope going to do? Well, because you might have been holding it in a loop, when the horse walks away - the loop will tighten around your fingers. If he's trotting or loping, it'll tighten around your fingers and bad things can happen.

So in my opinion - holding it like this is safer:

I call it the figure 8 style, because the way the rope is held, it looks like a figure eight. (this was the best photo I could find..)
This is safer, because when the horse would become scared and move away pretty fast, then instead of your fingers getting mushed together, then you have all this extra rope to try and get your horse to come back to you - and you can still do it because your hand isn't mashed up between the rope, or worse.
I tried to find a video, but there wasn't any.
This is just thought, no judging and no saying "holding the rope in a loop is wrong," because I am not trying to say that. Just concerning a little bit more safety. Better safe than sorry! Haha!

According to the AQHA rulebook,

"The excess lead should never be tightly coiled, rolled or folded."

I'm just pointing out you'll get points off if you show that way. I've never seen anyone hurt their fingers by getting caught in the lead before either...

Well, when (and if) my horse does do that, I'll just be glad my hand was safe.
I do see your point though.

Holding the lead rope looped back and forth , not coiled in circles, is Horsemanship 101; one of the very first things a person should learn.

Holding a loop of rope IS dangerous. If horse bolts it will cinch that loop on your hand and if they decide to keep running, you're going with.
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My friend had his 16+hh gelding spook when he had the lead wrapped in a circle like the OP first post.... He had to have his bones reattached to his hand via pins The skin was left attached though. ..
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Ouch! See my horse never spooks, but when, and if, he does I'm going to keep my hand and stay in place. Gosh, that would sure be bad - and painful!

You have a "large" loop for showmanship, which is in the rules for just about every stock horse organization.

The folding back and forth is really only used and required in Special Olympics/Challenged Rider shows here.

Feel free to loop your rope :) no one handling our horses ever will. We are special though lol
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Regardless of what the show rules are, anyone who's been around horses for more than 5 minutes should know to never hold a lead in loops for just that reason.